Archive | Cover Letter

At a recent breakfast meeting with HR professionals, as we waited with coffee in hand for the program to start, I asked the recruiters and hiring managers sitting at my table about their perspectives on cover letters. Here’s what I learned: If there’s something that needs to be explained—perhaps a gap in employment or why […]

The standard three-paragraph format for writing a LinkedIn summary is 1. Describe what you do 2. Share a few attributes 3. Have a call to action (“I’m looking for a new role…” or “Feel free to connect with me…”). I encourage more personality in LinkedIn profiles. Especially because increasingly hiring managers and recruiters use LinkedIn […]

In talking with a couple of hiring managers this week, we got on the topic of marketing materials. I heard the good, the bad and the ugly. The good? A cover letter from an under-qualified candidate that landed him an interview. You see, he’d done his homework and realized that his background in construction operations […]

Recently, I did a webinar on how to write a great cover letter. It’s been a frequently requested webinar topic – I think intuitively people know that the style of cover letters has changed, but they need some guidelines or suggestions for content. If you missed it you can watch the webinar here or I’ll […]

Nothing thrills me more than when I’m working with a client and they exclaim “Hold on. Let me write that down. That’s the perfect way to say that.” I love nailing something – whether it be with words or timing. It isn’t that I have something special with words. I just listen carefully and intuitively. […]

< Like when trying to figure out someone’s “career story.” There are times when I just start to zone out… I’ll be looking at a LinkedIn profile and before I know it, I’m deep into reading an article and I can’t even remember whose LinkedIn profile I was viewing. This also happens during networking events […]

There’s been an interesting thread in one of my LinkedIn groups about a cover letter (The Daily Muse: 7/16/12) written by a recent grad promoting himself. Lots of professionals weighing in on whether they’d interview him based on the cover letter. My unscientific analysis — 70% turned off, 30% intrigued. The style is cheesy and […]